Chris, thanks for checking out my post. It’s wild how two people can read the same thing and see totally different things.

I didn’t see her tarring ALL democrats.

Democratic underground is not an obscure website as political websites go: number 22 in a reasonable list of political sites and 10,107 overall (Alexa.com).

I don’t know why she has the obligation to track down the people behind this site and who’s to say they are not affiliated with the DNC through some proxy or umbrella group?

I didn’t see her say Ashcroft is above all criticism. In fact, she criticizes him in her book, “Invasion”, (pages 71-72 and page 228). In this particular piece she is defending him. Is it unacceptable to praise and defend without criticizing and attacking at the same time?

I didn’t see where she says or intimates that all who criticize Ashcroft are traitors. She makes a good case that some are.

There is a loud and influential radical Left in this country that is anti-American and pro-terrorist from Hollywood to the university to the New York Times and infesting the Democrat Party. Their “criticism” is deliberately designed to embolden our enemies, weaken the will of the citizenry, demoralize our troops and undermine our battle against these barbaric lunatics. They are having some influence. What I saw was a column exposing some of these vermin. You saw nonsense. Funny.

Your last paragraph Doug W; I cant believe even on the reasonable fringe of the left side of the political spectrum there are those using their influence (in the medai and elsewhere)for deliberate furtherance of the cause of the destruction of America through terroristic means.

Perhaps such people's un-enthusiasm for GW's idea of what constitutes defending America might in someway give aid and comfort to our enemies. At this point I dont think so though.

Chris,
Fair enough. Note, that the summation containing the word, “deliberate” was mine and not from Malkin’s column.

As for “GW’s idea”, the authorization to use force against Saddam Hussein’s Iraq was approved by the American peoples’ representatives in the House by 296-133, and in the senate by 77-23. For the international imprimatur, there were at least 9 resolutions by the UN Security Council culminating in the ultimatum of res. 1441. There was support of most of the civilized nations of the world, excluding France, Germany and Russia whose elite were getting rich milking the oil-for-food program and selling weapons. Also, this was no brand new war, but the decisive end to a war that had been simmering since 1991 with regular attacks against our aircraft enforcing the no-fly zones that Saddam had agreed to as a condition of our leaving him in power at that time. (Admittedly, it was Georgie’s dad who waged that war, but also with congressional and UN approval (res. 678)). So, though the president has been the premier proponent of taking this action and had lobbied for it aggressively, characterizing it as, “Bush’s idea of what constitutes defending America” may be somewhat narrow considering the massive domestic and international support and the historical foundations.

Even though I strongly disagree with those who lack enthusiasm for this course in the war against Islamo-fascism and Bush’s foreign policy in general, I respect and support the discussion. And, even though I believe that this dissension does offer aid and comfort to our enemies, I believe that the debate is necessary, healthy and inevitable in a free society and thus outweighs the harm. In normal free debate the “aid and comfort” is minuscule and, in fact, infuriates the enemy. But what I am seeing goes far beyond normal debate. What I am seeing from The Left is a horrific, propagandizing attack against Bush’s foreign policy on an massive, coordinated scale. The characterization of our leaders as Nazis, Fascists and dictators, the visits to Iraq by celebrities and congressman prior to the war, the statements by college professors that the pentagon is a legitimate target, presidential candidates saying that Bush knew about 9-11 in advance, Al Gore saying that Bush betrayed this country, John Kerry telling Rolling Stone that Bush, “F**ked it up” , the complete lack of coverage by the old media of the progress in Iraq and the burgeoning transformation of the Middle East, this is The Left undermining their country. Some, through the hunger for political power, some through their ridiculous dream of “social justice”, some through their quest for personal power in their unions, NGOs, and leftist organizations, some through their naïve faith that evil can be converted or appeased or negotiated with, some through their cult-like indoctrination to leftist ideology and some through the mental illness of nihilistic, suicidal liberalism are, deliberately or not, undermining their own country, western civilization and the Judeo-Christian values that are the basis of the individual freedom that we enjoy today.

So, at what point DO you think that this type of action will give aid and comfort to our enemies?

I have too much time on my hands!

Doug to hear you tell it one would think those who to the American Indians made war on, massacred, starved and perpetrated ethnic cleansing by shuffling the survivors off to reservations and later broke treaties to steal some of the reservations back were Islamo-Fascists! Could those grounded in Christ's message of Peace and Love Thy Neighbor do such things?!

Why do I travel down this path? My point is it's not as simple as Judeo-Christian values bestow us all the blessings of a free society we enjoy today. If one is to thank the Christianity of the Founding Fathers for the government they brought forth, then what is to be blamed for the genocide unleashed on those who got here first?

Is the American way better than the world that Osama bin Laden, extremist Ayotollahs, and even the Saudi Royal Family want to foist on us? I must say unequivically yes. However throwing Judeo-Christian values into the mix or not, are American actions now and in the past always commendable under all circumstances? I must say no and I dont subscribe to the "Good vs Evil" world view of GW Bush and company.

Woooeeeeeeee are we having fun yet? Ha ha! We have strayed afar from Malkin’s column and the current geo-political imbroglio, right to the red juicy meat of the cultural divide!

Mankind is flawed and the followers of Christ are far from Christ-like. When I refer to the Judeo-Christian values I am referring to the desire of movements and leaders in human history to imperfectly aspire to his message, and the strides mankind has made toward individual freedom due to those movements and leaders from the Magna Carta to the Treaty of Westphalia to the Rights of Englishmen to the US Constitution; all based on Christian philosophy.

There are forces in nature and human nature that are inexorable. One of those is that when a superior culture encounters an inferior culture, the inferior culture is extinguished. There is no amount of wishful thinking or revisionist history that can change this fact of nature. Throughout history, the lesser peoples have been mercilessly exterminated. Just look at the encounter between the Spaniards and the Incas. The encounter between the American settlers and the natives at that time was the first time in the history of the human race that any attempt at all was made to accommodate the indigenous peoples. It was the Christian ethic that mitigated the slaughter to the extent that it was mitigated. Show me one other time in history when a weaker indigenous people were offered treaties and reservations in the first place! It was unheard of until that time. In other words, I thank the founders for our freedom and I blame the horrors on human nature.

History is filled with slaughter, plunder, rape and conquest. It is what people do. To single out this quality in the history of one particular nation, your own, while ignoring the fact that it is human nature as well as the fact that your own nation has been less egregious than any other in all of history seems to me to be perverse.

I’m reassured that you feel that The American Way is better than the Osama way. I do not and never would say that American actions are always commendable under all or any circumstances. So, we agree there. I would say that overall, nations that are governed through the consent of the governed tend to make more moral decisions than dictatorships.

I’m surprised that you do not see “Good vs Evil.” I have no trouble seeing the events of 9-11 as evil and the freeing of the people of Iraq from a horrible despotism at the cost of lives and treasure as good. No trouble at all.

"It was the Christian ethic that mitigated the slaughter to the extent that it was mitigated. Show me one other time in history when a weaker indigenous people were offered treaties and reservations in the first place! It was unheard of until that time."

I must admit we Vikings killed alot and stole alot, plundered and all that but in the case of Sicily once we conquered it we actually set up and ran a Kingdom for over 100 years, made up of alive and well (though heavily "taxed" and otherwise put upon)Sicilian subjects. "Christian ethic"? Couldnt be, perhaps enlightened Paganism? Do you ever see a Siciliano eating Lufta or what ever that lye flavored fish is called?

Hmmmm, good point. Who ever came up with the idea of anchovies on pizza? Not genocide, but cruel nonetheless